Chapter 1: Beginnings

April, 2002

The moonlight reflected brightly off of the whites of my widely opened eyes. The fear was evident in my face. The pain was etched into my forehead. Sweat was drenching me from head to toe. And blood was freely flowing from my nose and mouth where I'd been struck numerous times. I knew that I was about to die. And all I could do is lay on my stomach here on the ground as stiffly as I could as the ten men dressed in deep burgundy red surround me. So I prayed. I am not religious by any means. But I prayed to anything and anyone I could pray to. I prayed to God, I prayed to Buddha. Hell, I even prayed to the devil himself.

One of the men dressed in red stepped closer to me. I recognized who it was. He was the lieutenant of the south side Red Badge. He was known as the Scorpion. He always carried a bamboo switch with him. Although he wasn't the smartest lieutenant to any of the Badge sects, he was by far the cruelest. He once blinded a man's entire bloodline because the man made the mistake of looking directly into his face. He took his bamboo switch and poked out each and every one of the man's family member's eyes. Right down to the furthest of cousins.

When the Scorpion got right next to me, he picked up his right foot and firmly stepped on the left side of my face. As he looked down on me, he said, "So, this is what's become of the great and powerful one. Looks more like a little pussy to me. Walking the streets alone can be dangerous." He laughed grimly. "Even if it is in your own turf." He laughed again. "You guys aren't what they used to be. It's time for us to take the position of power."

Then he turned to the others in the circle. "So what do you think boys? Shall we end his miserable existence now? Or do you guys want to have some more fun?" The little crowd yelled for more fun. So the Scorpion turned to me. "Well I guess majority rules. We're going to have to torture you some more." As he said this, he grabbed my left arm, lifted it up as he took his foot off of my head. He then brought his foot down hard across my left shoulder blade, while pulling up on my left arm. I felt the snap of my arm, and pain seared through my whole body. I felt my consciousness fading away. The last thing I heard before I fainted was the high-pitched whine of motorcycles rumbling towards us.

TEN YEARS AGO

September, 1992

I hate walking to school. But soon enough I wouldn't have to. I only had another week to go until I could drive myself. Sure, I would be driving that piece of shit 1986 Toyota minivan. But at least I wouldn't have to walk anymore.

I'm Christopher Liu. I'm what you might call a first generation Asian American. At 5'7", I'm fairly short for an American. But I'm average for being Chinese. I am however, fairly large for my height. I'm 160 lbs. I wouldn't necessarily call myself fat, as some of it is muscle from wrestling. But the words skinny and my name have never been synonymous. And as with most Asians, I have black hair and black eyes. Obviously we as a race don't have too much variance in our gene pool.

This is my junior year in high school. My 16th birthday was in a week. Finally I will be able to drive my own sorry ass to school. I received my driver's permit little less than a year ago. But I could only drive with an adult in the car. But turning 16 would allow me to finally drive myself. Sure I had friends who already had their licenses, but none of them could afford a car. And the friends that I hung around were nice, but didn't have wealthy parents. Out of my circle of friends, I probably had the richest parents. And that's not saying all that much. We weren't poor, mind you. But Robin Leach wasn't going to drop by my front door anytime soon. I would be the first to drive a car. And that meant driving all my friends to school with me.

But alas, today, I was still fifteen. It was the first day of school and I was waiting on my porch talking with Rick Hau. Rick was my best friend. I met him when he moved next door to me in fourth grade. But I really didn't become friends with him until the fifth grade when we all got stuck in the same homeroom class. Rick was always the quiet one. He wasn't necessarily shy. It was just this mysterious quality in him. Girls loved it. He was already tall, dark and handsome. Add mysterious to that and you got a chick magnet.

We were waiting for Danny Fo and Dyl Dang to get to my house. They lived up the street from me. And the routine was for them to come to my house and meet up with Rick and me and then we would all continue on down the road. Danny and Dyl were cousins. Dyl (short for Dylan) was here from Hong Kong living with his aunt and uncle (Danny's parents). Dyl was a year older than us. He was a senior already. I felt sorry for him because even as a senior, his family wasn't financially able to support him to have a car. And while his aunt might have been willing to help him, his uncle always felt that Dyl was a burden and a responsibility he didn't want. So obviously that family wasn't going to be supporting Dyl with anything other than the bare necessities.

Danny on the other hand was a fuck up. He was always getting himself in trouble, so much so that his parents always had to pay for his mistakes. Whether it was broken windows, stolen goods, or anything like that, his parents paid for it. So even though Danny had already turned 16, they were not ready to give Danny that responsibility yet.

Finally Danny and Dyl got to my place and after a little bit of good natured grumbling about the start of school again, we headed out down the street. The next house in line was Gil's. Gil Chang was well... what we called a F.O.B. What's a F.O.B.? That's our acronym for 'fresh off the boat'. It's a derogatory term we use for people (especially Asians) that are new to America. And thus don't speak English all that well and excessively exhibit the culture from where they came from. He's better now than he used to be in the eighth grade when I first met him. But he will always 'have a little F.O.B. in him.'

So we picked him up and continued down Electric Ave to our final destination before school, Ernie's place. Ernie Shen was the brains of all of us. He was not your typical nerd, but he was close to it. He wasn't anti-social, nor was he extremely shy. So that helped him out. But he was definitely one of the top 15 of our class. That means a lot considering we have a junior class of 1,948.